Heart's Chocolate
by Dumpling Soup
Summary: It's Valentine's Day in Wonderland and Ace and Alice learn there's more to loving a person than just kissing and being romantic - it's about understanding each other.


Silence rattled in the minds of everyone present at the party, draping over them like a misty morning full of fog. The ball that was decorated with lively colors of reds, pinks and whites, suited to the taste of her royalness Vivaldi, was splattered with a river of running chocolate, the drapes around the ballroom torn and shredded, hanging only by meager threads; the tables knocked over; and the guests panicked, all huddled together in a semicircle near the back of the ballroom.

"Who has done this to our party!"

Vivaldi burst through the closed double doors that lead into the ballroom. Hardly having the time to do anything with her hair, it hung down in messy curls at her sides. She wore a simple, black evening gown that ruffled from the waist down to the floor and perfectly outlined the curves in her body. She clutched her scepter in her hand as she stomped to the middle of the room. All eyes were on here.

"Who has done this?"

Her voice was calm but underlayed with anger and agitation. The words "Off with their head!" were waiting to be rolled off of her tongue. When no one answered she took one last look around the gathered crowd.

"Then shall we have everyone executed here for ruining our party?"

"Vivaldi! Stop!" Alice—dressed in a white tulle dress with a pink wrap around her waist and a layer of pink at the bottom of her covered by only one, thin layer of white tulle, while her hair was braided into a loose french braid updo across the top of her lead, leaving the rest of her hair to curl around her neck—came running through from the back of the crowd, making her way slowly through the massive hoard of people. Vivaldi waved her scepter and the crowd parted like a river off it's coarse. With her way made, she ran up to Vivaldi in a panic. "You can't!"

"And why can't we?" Vivaldi questioned, slight anger slipping through her voice. "Those who let this happen are as responsible as the ones who caused this."

Alice flinched back. "T-Thats..." She couldn't say that Vivaldi was wrong. Someone _should_ have stopped that fight from breaking out in the first place instead of just watching it, but that was just the mindset of the people in Wonderland: fighting was something so second nature to them, it was hardly viewed as anything _wrong_ until something were to happen, and even then, it wasn't the fight that was bad, just the outcome of it all.

"The fountain broke."

Ace placed one of his enormous, gloved hands over Alice's shoulder and gripped it tightly, as if for standing support.

She caught onto his drift in seconds and, after recovering from the momentary shock, she quickly turned back to Vivaldi. "That's right!" she squeaked hopefully. "The fountain broke and the chocolate went all over the place. Someone must have gotten something stuck in it or knocked it over or something."

Vivaldi raised an eyebrow. "And the drapes? Those were some of our favorite ones in the whole castle." She tapped her fingers on her arm impatiently.

"New fashion?" Alice tried to sound confident, but without the thought that Ace was backing her up, her confidence took a small plunge.

The woman pursed her lips together and raised her head slightly to look down at the foreigner. "And what do you want us to do?" she asked slowly.

Alice smiled. "Start the party."

She closed her eyes and sighed. _Honestly,_ she thought, _we are no match for her, are we?_ "Fine." Vivaldi raised her scepter in the air. The stirring and murmuring in the crowd halted. Again, all eyes were back to Vivaldi. "Then, we commence the start of this party. Let the dance begin."

Alice, content with the outcome, sighed and slumped her shoulders, the weight of the people's lives now off of her heart. Vivaldi was called over by the king on some "grounds of important matters" before she was even able to start a proper conversation with her, though it might have been more of a blessing for her as she wasn't quite sure what to say when Vivaldi was in her moods like that.

"I think I'm going to go outside and get some fresh air," Alice said to Ace, who was still standing behind her. For a minute, she had forgotten that he was even there. Today he was unusually quiet and well behaved. "What's wrong?" The words slipped out of her mouth before she had time to think.

Ace looked down to her and meekly smiled. "I thought you were going to get some fresh air, but perhaps you're content with just looking at me; I, on the other hand, won't be content with just _looking._"

She blushed red and looked to the ground. The same old Ace. And here she was thinking that he was different. "No. I'm going!" she huffed. "I just thought that you were being..." She trailed her sentence off, shook her head, turned around and walked outside.  
Perhaps it was her, but it was like his words were hidden with sadness in his voice. She could always tell when Ace was faking a smile, which was most of the time, but unlike usual where she would have to study him for hours to figure out if he was faking or not, today he seemed to be letting his guard down; it was almost _too_ easy to tell. Maybe there really was something wrong with Ace?

.

Outside the night air was cold and chill. Alice liked the puff of white every time she breathed out; it drew her attention away from other such things. She made her way to the fountain over on another side of the castle and sat down, rubbing her bare arms from the cold, night air.

"Do you dance?" Ace walked around the corner of the place and sat down next to Alice. He stripped his jacket off and placed it around her shoulders.

Alice laughed to herself. "You know," she said,reminiscing, "I don't even remember how many parties I've already been to, but no matter how many I go to, I still can't quite get the hang of dancing." She gripped the edges of his coat. "Thank you for the coat, Ace."

"You looked cold."

"It is pretty chilly outside."

"Then how about we start a fire?"

The question caught Alice off guard. "A fire?"

"Sure." Ace jumped out of his seat and started walking to an empty space in the courtyard.

"Won't Vivaldi be mad?"

"Why?" he asked, looking over his shoulder. "I do it all the time, don't I?"

Alice laughed. "I guess you're right."

It took only a couple of minutes for Ace to find enough firewood to start a decent fire that would last them for a few hours. He crouched down in the middle of the courtyard, with Alice next to him, and plopped himself on the ground extending his legs forward and leaning his arms back until he was almost lying down. He looked up into the sky, the fire crackling next to him. In its own way, this was somehow peaceful from his normal endeavors.

"Happy Valentine's Day."

Ace looked to Alice. In her delicately framed fingers, she held out a small bar of chocolate to him. Her eyes were filled with innocence, clearly unaware of his sporadic bouts of feelings for her.

"I wasn't going to give anyone anything since I think it's a stupid holiday, but since I grabbed too much chocolate bars, you might as well have some." She threw the chocolate bar at the knight when he didn't take it, then she reached into her pocket and pulled one out for herself. "It's not like I hate chocolate," she went on, "I just think there's other—better stuff—to eat, you know?"

"Fancy tea?" Ace asked as he unwrapped his candy.

"I love tea," she replied.

"I know," he muttered to himself. Of course he knew. He'd always been watching her, Alice, the strange, new foreigner, since she'd come here. He'd seen how much she'd changed everyone. At first, it started with the little things, habits and speech, but then it got into bigger things, like their mindsets and actions. He'd watched her do all of that (all of that and yet she still didn't take any credit for it, for she could barely see what a change she had really made as everyone fell deeper and deeper into her "normal" world), and yet to him, she did nothing; he didn't change, hasn't changed.

Alice watched as as he stared deeply into the fire, taking his time to munch on his chocolate bar until he had finished it and thrown the wrapper into the fire. She was right, something was definitely off about him.

"Ace?"

"Yes, Alice?" He didn't look at her. She shifted her head away from him, an action he caught in the corner of his eye, which bequeathed her his full attention.

"What's wrong?" This was the second time she was asking this question, but this time she was determined to get an answer. "You're... different today."

"Why won't you look at me?"

"Don't change the subject!" she shouted, twisting her head over to the man in anger. "I'm asking you a question. Didn't anyone teach you it's impolite to answer a question with a question."

Ace burst out into laughter. "No."

She sighed and rubbed her temple. This would be a long night; she could feel it. "Listen," she said, "I'm only asking because I'm worried about you, Ace." She placed her hand on top of his and squeezed. "I know you, and this isn't you."

"No."

"Sto—"

"Alice," Ace interrupted, with a hefty sigh, "what part of me do you think you 'know?'"

The coldness was quite obvious in his tone. She'd be lying if she said it didn't hurt a little. "After all this time," she whispered, "you think I don't know you? You think I haven't been watching you put up those fake fronts in front of people? Yet, at the party I could plainly tell there was something wrong. You _never_ sound sad, and yet, there you were, sounding all sad in front of me and trying to hide it."

Ace's eyes widened as he watched Alice almost break down into tears.

"What does that say about our relationship?!" she screamed. "Do you not trust me? Am I just some 'foreigner girl' to you that you think you can play around with?"

Ace moved in closer to Alice. He twisted his body around, placing his right hand on Alice's and swinging his left over her body. He kissed her, pressing his lips gently across her own.

Alice blushed red. She was entranced by his dark, crimson eyes. Her heart accelerated rapidly and her body ached for another kiss. All she wanted to do at that moment was throw herself onto him, and she didn't care what would happen.

He smiled. "You obviously want more."

She blushed even more. "G-Get off of me, Ace."

"Nope." He smiled as he brought his hands to her shoulders and swung his legs over her legs. "It's Valentine's Day, Alice; be more romantic."

Alice slapped his face as hard as she could as the blood rushed to her face and the adrenaline of the moment raced through her body. Ace let out a small cry in pain and crawled back off of the girl, resuming his spot next to her, and mumbled like a spoiled child when he doesn't get his way:

"You didn't have to hit me so hard."

"You didn't have to kiss me either. Or try to rape me."

Ace laughed. He smiled and rubbed her head. Alice tried to bat his hand away but gave up after the second measly swatting attempt, deciding to, instead, scrunch up and try to hide her blushing face.

"You're cute, Alice." He leaned in, pulling her into his chest, and kissed her cheek, whispering into her ear, "I love you, Alice."


End file.
